Fence



(N0 Mod-elm) J. HIGGINS 81; J. SULLIVAN.

FENCE.

Patented July 9, 1889.

ATTORNEY drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate UNiTED STATES PATENT OFFIC JAMES HIGGINS JOHN SULLIVAN, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN.

FENCE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 406,645, dated July 9, 1889. 7

Application filed January 26, 1889- Serial No. 297,700. (No model.)

To all whom 2'1; may concern.-

Be it known that we, JAMES HIGGINS and JOHN SULLIVAN, of Grand Rapids, in the county of Kent and State of Michigan, have invented a new and Improved Fence, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Our invention relates to fences for lands, and has for its object to provide an inexpensive, substantial, and fire-proof fence structure more especially adapted for use on stockfarms along railways, but available elsewhere, and constructed to prevent injury to animals from barbed wires commonly employed in fences of this character.

The invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts of the fence, all as hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying corresponding parts in all the figures.

Flgure 1 is a view of a panel of a fence next the corner of a field and constructed in ao-.

cordance with our invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof. Fig. 3 is .a detail perspective view of the fence at the top of the corner-post. Fig. 4 is a face view of a joint of the guardrail or head-board of the fence, and Fig, 5 is a sectional plan view taken on the line a: min Fig; 4:.

The fence-posts A are substantially the same as the posts shown in our recent patent, No. 392,334, granted November 6, 1888, each post having a face-plate a, from which a flange or rib a projects, both the face-plate and flange being sharpened at the lower end to allow the posts to be readily set by driving them into the ground with a maul applied attheir ro'unded upper ends. The post-ribs a and one edge of the plate a of the corner-posts are provided with slits I), which receive the lower barbedwire stringers B of the fence, these slits being preferably made diagonally to the plane of the stretch'ed wires, which are fastened in the slots bya fewblows of a hammeror tool closing the slits a little outside of the inserted wires.

' Our present improvement relates more particularly to the construction of the composite upper guard-rail or head-board C of the fence,

plain head wire 0, preferably round, and a bent plate or plates 0', which are formed of strips of metal doubled over on themselves and slipped onto the head-wire'c, and then pressed or clamped tightly around and to the wire by a suitable machine or implement something like a beading-machine, which is run along the strip over the wire. It will be noticed that the. plain head-wire c is slipped into openslots or slits (1. made in the tops of the fence-post flanges a, and that the head-board or guard-rail plate 0 extends along the fencepanel and fits snugly at its endsbetween the flanges or ribs of two adjacent posts, and the face of the guard-rail rests against the face of y the main plates at of the posts. Theguardrails thus also serve to brace or stay the tops of the posts one from the other. A blow or two of a hammer at the tops of the slots a closes them a little to lock the wire 0 therein and consequently lock the entire guard-rail down to the fence-posts.

Should the nature of the ground require any two posts of the fence to be set farther apart than the length of one of the guard-rails C, the guard-rail between these two posts may be easily joined or pieced out to fill in the space between the two posts and stay them, as above described. the two parts of the rail-plate 0 onto each other a little--say for about one-half an inchand then punching or pressing tongues D D back outof the metal of each plate and bendingor. pressing these tongues over the ends of the two parts of therail, as most clearly shown in Figs. l and 5 of the drawings, thus making a simple and substantial joint which will not allow independent endwisemotion of the two parts of the guard-rail, and will thus preserve the post-staying quality of the rail, and does not require waste of guard rail material, and allows the posts to be set any required distance apart.

We find in practice that this. fence, made This we prefer to do by lapping entirely of metal, and therefore fire-proof, is

specially serviceable along lines of railway or around large stock-farms or tracts of land adjacent thereto; but the fence maybe built advantageously Where any fence of this character is needed, as it presents a neatly-finished appearance and is capable of various styles of ornamentation.

Having thus described our invention, What We claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, in a fence, of posts provided with upper slots, a Wire run along the posts and into said slots, and guard-rail plates clamped to said Wire and abutting adjacent posts, substantially as herein set" forth.

2. The combination, in a fence,of posts made with a face-plate and a flange or rib, said flange provided with an upper slot, a Wire stretched along-the posts and in their flange-slots, and a guard-rail plate clamped to the Wire between and abutting adjacent posts, substantially as herein set forth.

3. The combination, in a fence, of posts A, made with face-plate a and flange or rib a, said flanges provided With slots 1) a barbedwire stringers B, set into the post-slots b, and an upper guard-rail 0, consisting of a plain wire 0, stretched along the posts in their slots a and plates 0, clamped to the Wire 0 and abutting adjacent posts, substantially as herein set forth.

4. In a fence, the combination, With adjacent slotted posts, a head-wire stretched between them in the slots, andaguard-railplate consisting of two parts end-lapped and having bent tongues clasped over and upon the extremities of the parts at their joint, substantially as herein set forth.

JAMES HIGGINS. JOHN SULLIVAN.

Witnesses:

FRANK W. HINE, CYRUS E. PERKINS. 

